Browsed byCategory: A Romanian in Bali

Why go to Tukad Cepung?

The plan for Bali was never set in stone. I researched the interesting things that we can see during the trip, and every evening we will pass through the list and see if we want to visit something next day or just chill down.

I saw the pictures with Tukad Cepung and wanted to see it. I knew it will be an interesting sight, not very touristic, pretty hard to find, and the part with a waterfall in a cave made it a must-see for me. I know that chasing waterfalls is one of the parts that Artem savors most from our vacations. So, in one of the evenings, while sipping a cold beer I decided not go to the most famous waterfalls in the regions, but to focus instead on this small waterfall hidden from curious eyes.

How to get to Tukad Cepung?

Ubud is Bali’s region which made us fall in love with this island, irreversible and for a lifetime. Not the touristic center of Ubud, but the wonderful rice fields around, the villagers working the fields, the life-full nature that surrounds this wonderful place.

We put the helmets on, I wrapped my sarong on my body over my bathing suit, and get on the motorbike.

I heard that the waterfall is hard to find, but I put all my hopes on the GPS and the hospitality of the people, in case we needed to ask for directions. With the wind on my face, we took the roads passing through rice fields, with villagers soaked deep in the green life, wearing straw hats. Children waved to us, and small temples passed fast as the motorbike was making its way through small roads. My arms were wrapped around Artem’s body, both of us drowned in the happiness of the moment. After around one hour we arrived at the parking at the entrance to the area of the waterfall.

Arriving at Tukad Cepung

After paying a small fee for entering the area, a very short rain started. Just for a few minutes, but enough to make us laugh about how we attract rain everywhere we go.

With a few days before, we did the sunrise trekking to Mount Batur. And now, we just saw a few steps before us, made us confident, it will be easy to arrive at the cave. Not a problem indeed, if you are not wearing sandals like I did. I was tired of wearing trekking shoes, and I read that the waterfall is easily accessible. It is, with appropriate footwear, because I was having the grace of a drunk ballerina trying to make pirouettes while slippering my way down on wet steps. Not to talk about the slippery steps with a bamboo rail in the entrance to the cave.

People complain about how to keep fit while on vacation. I think I need to go to the gym more just to prepare for my vacations. Let’s just make a small recap: trekking a volcano in the middle of the night (1 717m altitude), climbing 1 700 steps early in the morning to arrive to Lempuyang Luhur, and now going down I don’t know how many steep stairs to arrive at the point where I can go around huge rocks and enter into an open cave from where I can see the waterfall.

Tukad Cepung waterfall

The pictures are not the best quality due to waterdrops that were carried directly on to my camera lens, but this waterfall is a wonderful hidden gem that I discovered in Bali.

The area was wild with water-soaked life. Lichens and mosses flourished in every damp shadow. Weeds rose on rocks soaked in the sun, and earth’s perfume filled the air. There we were, just us two, with nobody around. I took down my sandals and dipped my feet in the water. Waterdrops were making my sarong get to life and wrap himself tightly around my legs, like an unnatural blue snake. A very large lizard passed around my feet and I screamed so loud that the cave was filled with the sound of my voice. Minutes before I was carefully walking not to hurt my bare feet on the sharp stones, and now in a matter of seconds I was running, without a care in the world.

I was sitting in there, on a rock caressed on sunlight, in the middle of the dark cave, and I was listening to Artem’s laugh. It was one of those perfect moments, that will follow you in life. There it was, the laugh that I called home. Because like Gregory David Roberts said, “Home is the heart you’re born to love”.

Like this:

Lempuyang Luhur as place of pilgrimage

EN: I haven’t been here since I was a child. The entire village came. We all get dressed in our most beautiful clothes, rented a bus and went to pilgrimage to all the main temples in Bali. Lempuyang Luhur was one of them. Is the first time I came back. How did you decide to come here, miss? Not a lot of tourists.

I smile, thinking about the times in my own hometown when my grandmother was dressing me in new clothes and taking me to the church on Easter. What strange customs we all have. Different countries, different cultures, different religion, but you still can find common grounds. I’ve seen some pictures and decided to visit it, I reply finally. It seems so beautiful and serene.

Oh, it is. Too bad is so bad weather today, a lot of clouds. No view. The view is beautiful. And with this, he stops the conversation and concentrates on the steep road ahead. Tiny-tiny mountain roads, where barely a car was fitting, steep and with sudden curves without visibility.

About Lempuyang Luhur

EN: 1 700 steps, at the altitude of 1 175m above sea level on the peak of Mount Lempuyang in East Bali. After Mount Batur, we didn’t plan any serious activities but somehow we wake up one morning in a car that was taking us up on the mountain roads to the entrance of Lempuyang Luhur.

The first temple, the biggest and most impressive of them all is situated at only a few minutes up from the main entrance. Majority of tourists stop here. Not me. I wanted to go up on all 1 700 steps, to see all the temples situated at different levels up on the mountain. I didn’t even know then what a beauty will wait for me in front.

The gate to heavens

EN: The entrance to the first temple is made through the famous gate to heavens. And it is a real door to heavens, suspending you between the earth and the sky. In the back, you can see Mount Agung, Bali’s highest peak, while in front is the first temple of Lempuyang Luhur with its three stairways.

The way up

EN: The morning dew was making our clothes stick to the bodies, my hair was wet. The jungle was all in a thin layer of mist. You were hearing monkeys in the trees around, otherwise, it was complete silence. The way up, even though made on stairs, is not a mear stroll. The stairs are steep and slippery, my knees were complaining all the way up. After a leg day at the gym, I was not feeling like this. I hear that the pilgrims believe that if you complain about the way up you will never reach the top.

The view

EN: At one point was an opening in the forest, where you were able to admire the view. I was standing there, looking at the mist and clouds, that were covering the view. I guess he was right. It was a bad day to come, we will not see the view. At least we saw the mist lifting up in the forest, and the road here was beautiful too. No regrets.

EN: Just as I was thinking this, a ray of sunshine appears. The view starts to clear. It was happening. By some kind of a miracle, the mist was lifting. The contour of the peak in front was appearing, there were some roads, and the little things like ants were the houses.

EN: The green of the slopes in front was offering itself to us. We were surrounded by life. From the jungle in the back to the green wonder in front. It was one of the best mornings of my life. I thought that reaching the temple in the very early morning will be a pain, but instead, it offered us a memory to treasure for a lifetime.

EN: Little by little the view was clear. The blue of the sky appeared. Soon, we reached the peak. Tiered, and wet from the morning dew. But it was a serene place, and calm. Without agitation, and without tourists.

EN:Bucurenci talks at one point in “About the courage to let yourself be seen” about religion, a personal experience, in which “the priest does nothing except making things more complicated”, and this makes him prefer “the temples of bored or tiered gods, which dismissed their servants a long time ago”.

I was to discover this book sometime later, but in the moment I read this passage, Lempuyang Luhur was the first thing I thought about. And I realized that Bucurenci was right.

EN: It rained a bit in the morning. We came by motorbike from Ubud, and it was now hot and airless. I put on my sarong which needed to cover my knees and I entered the temple. The sun was strong, but the water from the spring was cold like all mountain springs. Offerings were everywhere, the same as the numerous people. All nations, all cultures, from young people to old man. Vishnu believers or not, the springs were the main attraction. The legend says that Vishnu split a rock and created the water spring, to revigorate the people which were fighting a demon.

The Holy Water Spring or Tirta Empul is the place where the Balinese of Hindu religion come for a ritual of purification. There are 30 water spouts divided between two pools. From what I understood, the first is used for the usual purification rituals of people, while the second is for objects and different rituals. The last two water spouts from the first pool are for dead people, so nobody is entering under them.

A queue was formed for entering the water. I was fascinated how each person was meditating or praying under each water spouts, trying as much as possible to respect the rituals. I sit on the side and watch. The water was cold and clear. Old people were slowly moving, putting the offerings on the side of the pool, and then were passing through the cold water with their hand clasped in a Namaste prayer. I try to guess the prayers that people rise to the God of Water, and to visualise how the water purifies everything.

EN: Tirta Empul is definitely the most crowded temple that I visited in Bali. After I stayed for a while in a corner near the water springs, I ran from the crowd and reached maybe the most beautiful side of the temple. One of the inner courtyard, named Jeroan. Here people came to pray. It felt more authentic than the crowded water springs. It was quite, you felt that you can think in peace or just empty your mind by looking at the calm water of the pond.

I was sitting on some steps and starring in a fixed point. My mind was empty, I was seeing the green contrasting with the darker tones of the stone walls, blackened by time. I saw through the clear water reflections of people faces, which were staying just as me, silently, watching around.

EN: In one of the ponds from the temple are koi fish swimming. A carp species, originated from Japan, in strong colors which symbolise inner strength, perseverance or destiny fulfillment.

Bali temples can seem dark at first sight, with stone walls, which time and maybe the smoke of incense from rituals blackens them, but the multicoloured offerings spreaded everywhere, the trees and vegetations around give them colour. Is the colour of nature, without the blinding gold of tall towers. Each thing is placed with a certain purpose, making you to admire nature, beauty and to find hidden symbols. Each garden, lake, tree or living being makes you understand that you are just a small piece of the whole, where each of us has its role and its own powers.